Authoritarian Legality in China

Mary Gallagher is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she is also the Director of the Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. She was a Fulbright Research Scholar from 2003 to 2004 at East China University of Politics and Law, Shanghai, and in 2012-13, she was a Visiting Professor at the Koguan School of Law, Shanghai Jiaotong University. She is also the author or editor of several books, including Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China (with Margaret Y. K. Woo, Cambridge, 2011) and Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (with Allen Carlson, Kenneth Lieberthal and Melanie Manion, Cambridge, 2010).

'Drawing upon abundant narratives and surveys, Gallagher offers a groundbreaking take on the complex dynamics between the Chinese state and workers. Her vivid account forcefully challenges the conventional theories about authoritarian legality and discloses the intertwined relationship between workers' rights mobilization, economic development, local governance, and the changing demographic structure in rural and urban areas.' Weiting Guo, Pacific Affairs

• 1. Authoritarian legality at work: workplace reform and China's urbanization; 2. A theory of authoritarian legality; 3. Fire alarms and fire fighters: institutional reforms legal mobilization at the Chinese workplace; 4. By the book: legal mobilization as an educative process; 5. Great expectations: the disparate effects of legal mobilization; 6. The limits of authoritarian legality; 7. Epilogue: requiem for the labor contract law?